These are just my opinions. I cannot promise that I will be perfect, but I can promise that I will seek to understand and illuminate whatever moves that the Giants make (my obsession and compulsion). I will share my love of baseball and my passion for the Giants. And I will try to teach, best that I can. Often, I tackle the prevailing mood among Giants fans and see if that is a correct stance, good or bad.

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Lincecum Reaches 200 Strikeouts

Tim Lincecum in his last start reached 200 strikeouts for the first time in his career. He had 196 between the majors and minors last season and 199 in college once. Accomplishments (from Chron, Merc, sfgiants.com accounts):

He became the first Giant since Jason Schmidt accumulated 251 K's in 2004 to reach that level.

The 24-year-old is the ninth Giants pitcher to reach the 200-strikeout level since the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958.

Lincecum maintained terrific stuff to the end, popping the glove at 96 mph while striking out the side in the seventh inning. Lincecum offered more reassurance that he is built for a long race: "My body feels the same. It feels strong."

Lincecum also improved to 14-3, matching the second-best record among San Francisco pitchers through 17 decisions. He matched Juan Marichal (1968) and Scott Garrelts (1989) and trails only Gaylord Perry (15-2 in 1966).

The bullpen has squandered leads in six of Lincecum's starts; the rubbery right-hander was in line for the victory in five of them. Thus, he could be 19-3 right now with perfect bullpen support.

He leads the league in strikeouts (200) and ERA (2.48).

In addition, the Giants shut out the 'Dres behind Lincecum and Wilson's pitching. The Giants' 10 shutouts this season tied them with the Dodgers and Mets for the National League lead entering Saturday. The last San Francisco team to record more blankings was the 2002 club, which had 13.

3 comments:

Lincecum is simply amazing! What do you think Lincecum's chances are at winning the Cy Young? I think if he can get to 18 wins and maintain his NL leading strikeout and era stats then he would definitely be a frontrunner for the Cy.

As much as most of us agree that wins are relatively random and not a great measurement of a pitcher's value, most writers look at that as a key metric and Webb is 19-4, while Lincecum is "only" 14-2. If Webb can win out the rest of his starts, he would have 25 or 26 wins, and though he won't have as gaudy an ERA or strikeout total as Lincecum, he isn't that shabby in that department either.

Even if he don't win the rest, as long as he pitches decently and keep his team competitive each game he starts, he'll probably have wins in the low 20's plus still decent stats, and a team that is competitive or a division winner, that should win it for him.

Lincecum needs eye-popping stats to get the writer's notice, like Steve Carlton did so many years ago. Leading in ERA and strikeouts is pretty good in that regard. But it's not like he's leading by a lot, he's just edging out Johan and Webb in ERA and there's still a lot of season to go, though he is leading by a lot in strikeouts, but, again, it's not an eyepopping total right now.

If he can continue to strike out about 10 per start, he would be getting in the 250 strikeout total range and that would draw some attention.

If he had won all those games the bullpen blew, however, he probably would be the front-runner because then he would be tied with Webb for wins while doing it for a lousy offensive team like the Giants.

Still, if he can win the rest of his starts, he should also have about 20-21 wins himself and if he can keep his stats at about the same pace as now, then I would say that he would have a much better chance of winning, because 20 wins in today's MLB is a pretty eye-popping thing to do.

I would give him a 50-50 chance if he can reach 20 wins for a team that probably will be in the low 70's (though nowhere close to the 100 losses most Giants fans were predicting at the beginning of the season; I had predicted that they will be closer to .500 than the 100 losses)

I, Me, Mine

Wow, this was easy and amazingly free. I am a big Giants fan and I hope to use my experience in business (MBA) and analytics (nearly 25 years) to bring up interesting facts to other Giants fans so that we may better understand the team's chances for success (or not) and hopefully share their insights with me. Please read my "OGC's Business Plan" link to better understand what my philosophy is for building a successful MLB team.
I want to teach and share my love of baseball and, in particular, my love for the San Francisco Giants. I will believe to my dying days that Bobby Bonds should be in Baseball’s Hall of Fame for being one of the few to bring the combination of power and speed to the game.
Why a blog? I love technology and society and just wanted to participate in this trend to see what it felt like. Plus I have a lot of questions I would like answered about the Giants and since I don't see anyone else tackling them, I've taken it upon myself to do it. Not that I'm that special, but just that I'm willing to put in the time to investigate them.